I must admit to
having a weak spot for box sets.
Admittedly, you are unlikely to
have the best of everything when
having an indiscriminate collection
of ‘the complete’ anything by just
one ensemble, but at least you usually
have the benefit of sonic consistency
and soon gain an ear for where the
musicians are coming from.

This
set of the Beethoven String Quartets
was initially released by Arte Nova
on single discs during the 1990s.
I was intrigued by the photo on
the box of this 2006 re-release,
and, with no mention made of it
in the documentation I asked Sandy
Wilson the cellist if he knew anything
about it. As it often turns out
with the subsequent exploitation
of earlier releases, the Alexander
Quartet had nothing to do with the
reissue of these recordings, though
they did have input into the selection
of the distinctive artwork for the
original discs [example left].

It would have been
nice to have heard some juicy tale
about how this new cover showed
the way they had left the recording
studio after completing the set,
with the inclusion of a boat in
the space being part of some kind
of riotous rider for recording Beethoven.
As it is, the boat appears on all
nine discs and twice inside the
booklet as well as on the cover,
though its relationship to Beethoven’s
quartets remains an enigma – which
is perhaps the intention. In any
case, the Alexander Quartet are
in fact working on a new cycle of
these same works to be released
on the Foghorn Classics label, one
which already carries their complete
Shostakovich cycle recorded at the
American Academy of Arts & Letters,
which you will soon also be able
to find on these pages.

The California-based
Alexander String Quartet was the
first American quartet to win London’s
International String Quartet Competition,
and since the 1980s they have had
a successful international concert
career. While the budget credentials
of this Arte Nova box is beyond
doubt, these recordings are most
certainly still serious contenders
in a market which is well stocked,
but can always use decent low price
alternatives to those such as the
Kodaly
Quartet on Naxos, and the excellent
but now elderly Guarneri
Quartet. My own comparison has
been that of the Medici Quartet
on Nimbus, which was a ‘limited
edition’ in 1994 but still seems
to be available at a comparable
price.

The Medici Quartet
has the advantage of the gorgeously
rich but chamber music-friendly
acoustic of The Maltings in Snape,
but the sound quality for the Alexander
Quartet is also very good. It will
be the Libran in me, but as so often
with this kind of comparison I find
myself liking different aspects
of each performance in more or less
equal measure – sometimes, but not
in this case, ending up with no
clear winner. Both quartets have
the measure of Beethoven’s historic
transformation, beginning with the
more Haydn orientated Op.18 set.
The Medici Quartet are if anything
the more romantic in approach, softening
and broadening the lines without
losing too much of the music’s rhythmic
drive. The Alexander Quartet digs
a little deeper, the slightly closer
sound revealing a little more of
their inner articulation, their
ensemble seeming that bit tighter
and more punchy, but in turn giving
us more glimpses of the later Beethoven
rather than relaxing into the more
classical idiom.

Beethoven’s Op.
59 quartets appeared only five years
after his Op.18, but much water
had passed under his incredibly
creative bridge in this period.
The Medici set has the added bonus
of the Quintet Op.29, but
while they relish these more daring
works with gusto, I prefer the Alexander
Quartet’s greater sense of lyrical
shape and more immediate impact
with the dynamic and dramatic contrasts
in these remarkable pieces. They
also have the advantage of greater
accuracy in terms of intonation,
something which I hadn’t noticed
so much with the Medici Quartet
until being put back to back with
this newcomer.

The middle string
quartets could cover a chapter of
their own. One of my own past favourites
in this repertoire has been the
scruffy but ever-reliable Melos
Quartet on DG, but here we enter
a different relative price class.
The intense and compact power of
the String Quartet Op.95 is
well conveyed by the Alexander Quartet,
with Beethoven’s exaggerated dynamic
and accent markings being accurately
followed. The Medici quartet are
also good in this ‘bridge’ work,
which in a sense dissolves the achievements
of the Op.59 quartets and anticipates
the late quartets in some of its
extremes. I find the Medici’s less
well integrated than the Alexander
Quartet, with some weaknesses exposed
in the tricky solo lines in the
1st violin, and a generally
less tight sense of ensemble.

If the Op.59 works
were said to have "doomed the
amateur string quartet", the
late quartets elevated the genre
into entirely new realms. Beethoven’s
Op.130 quartet was originally intended
with the Grosse Fuge as its
finale, and while the Alexander
recording places this alternative
usefully at the conclusion of the
Op.130 quartet, the Medicis have
it in place as the sixth movement,
following it with Beethoven’s later
replacement. Wading through these
incredibly intense and serious works
with an analytical ear is not always
a duty which fills your friendly
reviewer with joy, but I found listening
to the Alexander Quartet’s recording
to be much more of a pleasure than
a chore. I find the Grosse Fuge
a tough nut at the best of times,
but found myself drawn into this
performance with fresh ears – if
there is one thing the Alexander
quartet does well is produce convincing
and dramatic counterpoint, with
the layering of each voice as clear
as the advancing and receding shades
on a Mark Rothko painting, but with
all the restfulness of a Jackson
Pollock, just to confuse the analogy.
The Medici plays well in this difficult
music, but the whole effect is at
the same time lighter in texture
and more laboured, the difference
between fugue subjects and secondary
voices being that bit less well
defined. I even where the most complex
moments of Op.130 are sometimes
a little less felicitous I find
myself convinced by the Alexander
Quartet at this price class, and
would certainly recommend it over
the Nimbus set, filled with nice
sounds as it is.

One aspect where
I do sense a certain lack is in
expressing that enigmatic sense
of mystery we sometimes have in
the late quartets. I found myself
strangely unmoved by that eloquent
opening to the String Quartet
in C# Op.131 for instance. This
however is a minor gripe. This quartet’s
ability to sustain the long lines
in the brief and strange Adagio
of Op.131 and the Lento
assai of Op.135 for instance
create wonderful ear food. This
is a bargain set, and there can
be little hesitation in adding it
to one’s collection – assuming it’s
not overstocked with Beethoven boxes
already. There are better
all-round sets available, but not,
I suspect, at this budget price.
I’ll be intrigued to see how the
Alexander Quartet does in their
new recording, but I’ll also bet
it won’t be as cheap.

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